There are several different juicers currently available for the extraction of juice from vegetables or fruit. These devices are generally powered by an electric motor and employ filters to remove excess solids from the juice. Some allow for continuous juicing (automatic solids expulsion), while some do not and must be occasionally shut down for manual removal of accumulated solids.
There are two primary types of juicers: auger and masticating. The auger juicers typically operate at very low speeds, about 80-100 rpm. The auger tears or slices and then crushes the food during processing. Examples are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,637,323 issued Oct. 28, 2003, to Kim; U.S. Pat. No. 6,394,377 issued May 28, 2002, to Kim, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,154 issued May 25, 1999 to Yoon, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,429,626 issued Feb. 7, 1984 to Ihara, et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,385,553 issued May 31, 1983 to Ihara, et al. Some auger juicers utilize two augers at the same time. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,452,650 issued Sep. 26, 1995, to Lee and U.S. Pat. No. 5,381,730 issued Jan. 17, 1995, to Kim. These juicers are best suited for soft materials and greens. Because they rotate at a relatively low speed, they are cumbersome when juicing hard materials, such as carrots and beets. For some processes, such as homogenizing, these juicers are inadequate.
The masticating juicers typically operate at higher speeds than the auger juicers and use a cutter that grinds and chews the food. Centrifugal juicers, a type of masticating juicer, have a rotating, horizontal grating disk, and operate at about 3600 rpm. U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,085 issued Feb. 17, 1987 to Bertocchi and U.S. Pat. No. 6,050,180 issued Apr. 18, 2000 to Moline describe examples of centrifugal juicers. Centrifugal juicers are best suited for juicing of vegetables and fruit. They cannot juice greens such as wheatgrass, mix, shred, or homogenize food to make sorbets, nut butters, soups, and other similar food products.
Another type of masticating juicer, the CHAMPION juicer (see U.S. Pat. No. 2,864,419 issued Dec. 16, 1958 to Woock; U.S. Pat. No. 3,976,001 issued Aug. 24, 1976 to Trovinger; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,413 issued Sep. 15, 1998 to Trovinger has a single cutter that has saw tooth blades at one end and an auger at the other end, which rotates at about 1,725 rpm. First, the blade part of the cutter grinds the food to be processed, to separate the juice from the solids. Next, a combination of centrifugal force, compression, and gravity are used to expel the juice out the bottom of the housing. Then, the auger part of the cutter forces the solids forward and out the front of the housing. This juicer does not effectively juice greens for two reasons: first, wheatgrass wraps and collects around the cutter blades, and, second, solids compression is not sufficient for efficient extraction of juice.
Thus, there is a need for a single juicer that overcomes the significant shortcomings of the known prior-art as delineated hereinabove.